Published 5:06 pm, Friday, February 22, 2013

Photo: JAMES DURBIN

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Merkel's Ciara Cope and Macy Mays embrace while the team celebrates a win against Idalou during the UIL Region 1-AA Girls Basketball Semi-Final Friday at Chaparral Center. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

Merkel's Ciara Cope and Macy Mays embrace while the team celebrates a win against Idalou during the UIL Region 1-AA Girls Basketball Semi-Final Friday at Chaparral Center. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

The only thing on Allison Szabo's mind during her team's Region I-2A semifinal game against No. 15 Idalou was to win the game.

It didn't matter how many points she scored and it certainly it didn't matter that a big rematch was on the line against a team that knocked Merkel out of the playoffs in 2012.

Szabo scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed 10 boards to lead the No. 2-ranked Lady Badgers to a 37-34 victory over Idalou on Friday night at Chaparral Center.

The victory for the Lady Badgers sets up a big rematch against Wall in today's 1 p.m. Region I-2A final. Wall knocked out then-No. 1 Merkel during last year's regional quarterfinal round.

"I guess you can say that (it's a revenge game), maybe just a little bit. But we just want a win, though," Szabo said.

Thanks to Szabo the Lady Badgers (36-1) will get their chance at Wall again and Merkel coach Clay Barnett said Szabo played a big part to getting his team into today's big game.

"We kept preaching to her to be strong, be strong, take it (to) 'em, take it (to) 'em,' Barnett said. "We needed the ball in her hands because she can definitely put it in the hole, and she can definitely put it in the hole from the free-throw line."

This game was certainly not easy for the Lady Badgers, who despite their size advantage with the 6-foot-1 Szabo and the 6-3 Tiffany Young, couldn't shake a tough Lady Cats team, which finished the season at 27-8.

Idalou took a 15-11 halftime advantage as the Lady Badgers had trouble finding offense to go with Szabo's 10 first-half points.

"More than anything, (the Lady Cats) got physical and we didn't respond," said Barnett about the first half. "I could tell on film that Idalou was going to get aggressive and they were going to get physical. At times we wanted to kind of shy away from it instead of getting physical right back. And that was our goal going into the second half and I thought we did a better job of it in the second half."

Merkel started the third quarter strong as the Lady Badgers used a 13-8 run to take their first lead of the game (24-23) since the first quarter on a layup by Young. Merkel then took a 27-24 advantage on a Young jumper at the end of the third quarter.

"Sometimes your shots aren't going to fall but that's how it goes," said Szabo about her team's first half struggles. "You just have to stay with it, persevere and keep shooting."

The teams then traded leads to begin the fourth quarter until Idalou's Mackenzie Gregory (14 points) tied the game at 33 on a jumper with less than four minutes to play.

But soon after, the Lady Cats were hurt by foul trouble as Gregory fouled out with 1:42 remaining. Then as soon as Gregory fouled out, Macy Mays gave Merkel a 35-33 lead with 1:02 remaining.

The Lady Cats got as close as 35-34 on a free throw by Rachel Zahn, but then their offense took another hit when Bailey Thiel (16 points) had to leave the game with her fifth foul with 12 seconds left. Szabo then hit both of the ensuing free throws to seal the game for the Lady Badgers.

"We knew it was going to be a hard fought at the end and it was going to be low scoring, and that's what it was," Barnett said. "(Today's) game will probably be the same way."